I’m happy to announce that my book on the first season of America Unearthed is now for sale! The print edition of Unearthing the Truth: A Critical Companion to America Unearthed Season One runs just about 300 pages and covers all thirteen episodes of the series’ first season. All of the reviews have been expanded and revised for this edition, and most have appended to them completely new essays on the historical background of each episode. The book contains an exclusive essay on the history of America Unearthed as well as an expanded and revised version of my parody, “America Unhinged: Unicorns in America.” The book retails for $9.99, and I hope to have an eBook edition available by this time next week. (Unfortunately, Kindle Direct Publishing is giving me trouble with importing my files, so the eBook is running a bit behind schedule.) You can order your copy of Unearthing the Truthhere.

In putting together the book, one of the things I noticed was the degree to which the show’s claims ultimately rest on something never mentioned on the show, the Zeno Narrative, that Renaissance-era hoax that gave us the myth of Henry Sinclair as a discoverer of America thanks to Richard Henry Major’s widely reprinted 1873 edition with its essay “proving” Sinclair to be the main character of the story. This hoax is the only piece of evidence connecting Sinclair to America even though it mentions neither Sinclair nor America. That’s why I’ve decided that I need to get Fred W. Lucas’ debunking of the Zeno hoax back into print after 120 years. By rights, his debunking should have been the definitive word on the story, but his work went out of print while Major’s remained in print down to the present day.

I thought it might be helpful for everyone, Steve St. Clair included, to have a brief outline of the history of the Zeno-Sinclair myth since it is the essential and only evidence for the Sinclair-Holy Bloodline-Templar myth. St. Clair asked for information about how the myth “became attached to [his] family name,” and here it is:

A Sinclair Myth Timeline

1558. Nicolò Zeno the younger publishes a hoax narrative and map claiming his ancestors, the brothers Nicolò and Antonio Zeno, traveled to the North Atlantic in the 1380s where they met Prince Zichmni, a powerful warlord. Nicolò sailed to Greenland, and later Antonio and Zichmni also sailed to the other side of Greenland. Zichmni established a colony beneath a volcano in Greenland, and the story ends with him still there. No documented evidence for this voyage exists from before this date.c. 1566. Marco Barbaro claims in an undated manuscript that the voyage to Greenland continued on to North America. He apparently confuses the hoax narrative’s story of sailors who found an island beyond Greenland and reported this to Zichmni with the two Greenland voyages of the Zeni. No claim for Zichmni reaching North America exists before this date.

1570s-1780s. Explorers accept the Zeno map and narrative as genuine and use it to explore the North Atlantic, leading to false identifications and non-existent lands on early maps. Knowledge of the true size and shape of Greenland is retarded for several centuries by attempts to fit it into the Zeno paradigm.1700s. The Zeni story becomes fodder for Italian political rivalries. Venetian writers, accepting the story’s truth unanimously, begin to claim that the Zeno narrative gives the Zeni pride of place over Columbus, from Genoa, and Amerigo Vespucci, from Florence. According to Vicenzo Formaleone in 1783, “Cosi l’ardito F’iorentino, Americo Vespucci, rapi al Colombo la gloria di dare il nome al Mondo nuovo: gloria per altro nom sua; poiche rapita anch’essa ai nostri Zeni” (“So the bold Florentine, Americo Vespucci, seized from Columbus the glory of giving his name to the New World: glory meant for another name, since it was raped from our Zeni.”)1784. John Reinhold Forster, a German from a dispossessed Scottish noble family, proposes that Zichmni is Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, because he believes “Zichmni” looks like “Sinclair” as written with really bad handwriting and because Sinclair became earl in 1379, a year before the 1380 date given in the narrative. No connection between Zichmni and Sinclair exists prior to this date.1808. Cardinal Placido Zurla writes the most sustained defense of the Zeno narrative. Zurla’s and Foster’s claims are repeated by many other authors. After this, Italian writers continue to promote the Zeni cause while northern European writers begin expressing doubts.1833. Admiral Zarhtmann offers the first sustained skeptical criticism of the Zeno narrative. His skepticism is later confirmed by the discovery of a 1539 map by Olaus Magnus that was almost certainly the source for Nicolò Zeno’s fictional geography.1873. Richard Henry Major adopts Foster’s identification of Zichmni with Sinclair, although he rejects the handwriting claim, instead basing his version on a distorted account of the “similarities” between the real and fictional man. Major concludes that Sinclair sailed to Greenland and received reports from other explorers about European settlements surviving in North America. After Major’s book, subsequent authors transferred to Sinclair the claims originally made for the Zeni about the voyage, supposing this Scot to be worthier of the honor than what Major described as irrational, hot-blooded Italians. No claim that Sinclair should be awarded priority over Nicolò Zeno occurs before this date. 1892. A series of works tied to the anniversary of Columbus’ voyage attempt to replace Columbus with Sinclair on the strength of Major’s argument. Several remain in print for a century. The most important, though least read, is that of Thomas Sinclair, who asserts on the authority of Barbaro, Major, and others that Henry Sinclair (II, not I) discovered America and should replace Columbus in the American pantheon, all the better to stick it to Italians, whom he views as racially contaminating white society. This is the starting point for the “Sinclair discovered America” theory.

1898. Fred W. Lucas debunks the Zeno map and narrative. Over the next few decades, an academic consensus forms that the document is a hoax as new evidence for Zeno’s sources comes to light. Lucas’s book goes out of print, and the public has little access to academic discussion prior to the Internet age, leaving Major’s book as the main source of information.1900-1950s. Many alternative books reference Major’s in support of the Zeno narrative, though only as one of many alleged pre-Columbian voyages from Europe to America. 1959. Frederick J. Pohl adopts Major’s conclusions and expands upon them by proposing that Zichmni-Sinclair did not travel to Greenland as Major and the Zeno narrative state but instead traveled to Nova Scotia based upon a misreading of pitch flowing from an imaginary burning mountain (volcano) in Greenland (based on Olaus Magnus’ description of Iceland) as the burning bitumen of a well-known Nova Scotia coal mine prone to fires. He then identifies Zichmni with Glooscap, a local Mi’kmaq deity, based on fabricated reasons. Pohl’s work, expanded in a series of books through the 1970s, becomes the foundation for all later Sinclair-America theories. No claim that Sinclair colonized Canada appears before Pohl. 1970s-1980s. Joan Hope reads Pohl’s work and believes that her Nova Scotia home is built atop a castle built by Henry Sinclair during his voyage. There is no evidence for a medieval castle on her land, only a colonial-era mansion. Her view is popularized in several 1980s and 1990s books capitalizing on the growing Sinclair myth. No claim for a Sinclair castle in America precedes Joan Hope.1992. Andrew Sinclair adopts all previous speculation and weaves it together with the Knights Templar and the Holy Bloodline of Jesus from the infamous Holy Blood, Holy Grail alternative history book from the 1980s. Sinclair’s work creates the final form of the Sinclair myth as it is known today. As far as I can find, no claim of a Sinclair-Templar-Bloodline connection exists prior to Andrew Sinclair.

2006-2009. Scott F. Wolter proposes that Henry Sinclair was involved in a Templar-Cistercian scheme to encode a hidden message in the Kensington Rune Stone (putatively dated to 1362) claiming all of North America for the Sinclair/Templar/Bloodline Grail Kings because Sinclair allegedly built the Newport Tower to “align” to the Rune Stone. Thus, the United States “belongs” to the Sinclair-Templar-Bloodline-Freemason elite. Wolter appears to be the first to connect Sinclair to the Kensington Rune Stone via the Templars.Thus, we can see that each step of development of the Sinclair myth was built at known points in time and by known individuals upon preceding layers of speculation, with this fact freely admitted by each speculator. Since the foundation was false, the subsequent extrapolations from that false foundation hold no water and cannot be assumed to be true without some sort of external confirmation from outside the Sinclair-Templar-Bloodline alternative ecosystem.

Unfortunalty for the Sinclair chosen tribe,there is not a single historical record that documents a Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic journey to America. Although there is one noticeable event (recorded in modern history as the day of infamy) involving a member of the Sinclair family. Anne Sinclair (wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn) visits to Rikers Island & NYC.

The only record is the Zeno Narrative, and it doesn't mention either Sinclair or America. It's amazing the way one author after another just keeps piling more speculation upon speculation.

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scott wolter's worst enemy aka the scientific method

1/18/2017 08:45:26 am

thank you jason. ive also spent hours tearing down the misconceptions, lies, and fantasy Scott wolter spews frequently on global TV. It's truly sad this man is teaching gullible kids utter BS scientific reasoning and techniques. the same kids might one day repeat his lies, be embarrassed and then possibly turn away from science archaeology and history. he should be ashamed with himself, and history channel should be renamed the fantasy reality network. now they have those two seemingly nice but gullible fools on 'the curse of oak island' using this completely obvious and illogical myth/hoax to create dots and connect them to the next addition in this hoax, oak island. even the writers of the show and now next chapter of hoax cant write anything interesting or semi believable to the oak island 'mystery'.

Tara Jordan

5/12/2013 06:50:09 pm

Addendum. The Anne Sinclair-Dominique Strauss-Kahn "encart" was a private joke but a real story (for those unaware of the intricacies of French politics;). Having said that,I challenge anyone (so called professional alternative historians Aka flim flam experts) to inquire upon the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris & (or) the Bibliothèque Universitaire de Lyon,& find one single genuine piece of document corroborating a Knights Templar Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic journey to America.

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Gunn

5/13/2013 02:51:17 am

Actually, the Kensington Runestone documents a pre-Columbus trans-oceanic journey to America. The KRS is a noose around your neck, Tara, and also yours, Jason...or at least it will be.

By the way way, I went all the way back through this blog, to October of last year, searching for evidence of the cyber-bully who took the time to leave a bogus retaliation smear on my book, and guess what? I found the likely candidate.

Key word: "garbage."

Plus a few seemingly "minor" confrontations.

Christopher: I'm glad I didn't emotionally misjudge and accuse you, though you can be particularly nasty, too.

Naturally, I forgive everyone, and I will include you all on my prayer list.

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Christopher Randolph

5/13/2013 03:39:54 am

There we have it, in one small post modern American Christianity in a nutshell.

- Belief overriding fact
- Vague threat to the non-believer ("noose" is the best metaphor we could come up with..?)
- Claims of persecution whenever anyone makes valid counterpoints in a discussion that you chose to begin, or steered in the direction you wanted
- Humble-bragging
- Criticism of others couched in a concern for their spiritual well-being
- Inaccurate recollection of events
- Forgiveness that no one asked for, no one needs, and that the forgiving party is hardly in a position to grant... and always in the most public manner possible

What a great system, getting to lash out at people and then forgive them for being on the receiving end of it. Like diety, like follower I suppose.

You did in fact intend to implicate me as the person who committed the horrible crime of... reviewing your book in a forum that allows book reviews. What you mean to say is that you're glad you accused me of something for which you had no proof (there's a theme you seem comfortable with), something which is perfectly reasonable behavior had I read your book in any event, and didn't use my name while doing it because then we'd have objective proof that you were wrong. You mean to say you were glad that you accused me in a way which allowed yourself a denial escape later.

When I told you plainly that your reviewer was not me you ignored that fact. Can't help but to think that a person lacking your religious levels of certainly might think for a moment that asking for forgiveness for that from the accused might be in order.

Not so many years ago walking around claiming that your family line was sired by Jesus himself would have gotten a number of Sinclairs stoned to death by gentle Christians, meek and mild. I'd not be the slightest bit surprised in fact if some of the maintainers of this garbage (there's that word again) aren't in fact getting cyberthreats now for their apostasy.

Gunn

5/13/2013 03:48:54 am

Forget it, Opher...you've already proved that you are a master of twisting things around and putting words in peoples' mouths. I have nothing to say to you. What part of "mean people suck" do not you or Tara understand?

Tara Jordan

5/13/2013 07:18:14 am

Gunn,I don't understand your reaction.You are taking this matter so personally, & quite frankly I don't see any reason for doing so.As far as I remember, I never attacked you or even tried to silence you.Like I told you before I know nothing about the KRS issue,& I have a strict personal policy: I never talk about issue from which I know nothing. Apparently the vast majority of scholars,academics & experts consider the KRS to be a hoax.Few amongst the academic community have questions about its authenticity or believe it to be genuine.I guess this issue remains an open question,but you personally,as long as you discard scientific rigor, you are not playing a serious game.When it comes to the "Knights Templar Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic journey to America", don't take my word for it, do your homework,but you wont find anything legitimate that supports the "theory".

Gunn

5/13/2013 04:24:24 am

Anyone coming to this blog is invited to stroll back through memory lane; he or she will discover that both Tara and Christopher are guilty of being wretchedly vile to a succession of victims, beginning with Scott Wolter. Jason has been straightforward with folks, but never intentionally cruel. In my opinion, you other two are guilty of cyber-bullying. Shame on you both, as you both have proven to be public nuisances...and yes, vile, in my opinion.

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Cathleen Anderson

5/13/2013 05:04:52 am

Gunn, you've been quite rude yourself. Personally, I believe that the Kensington Runestone is a hoax.

Tara Jordan

5/13/2013 07:32:29 am

Gunn.This is not a rational argument,you are using the emotional card & posturing yourself as a victim.If having opinions based on rigorous scientific methodology & (or) showing an ability to accurately assess situations or people,& turn this to one's advantage,is the definition of "being wretchedly vile", then I plead guilty.Deplacement is the way to determine volume & that's a way to determine density,weight over volume.The same mechanism also applies to bullshit & garbage incubators...

Tara Jordan

5/13/2013 07:56:10 am

Gunn,don't even try to portray me as a cyber bully. Occasionally,I have been quite harsh & critical with Jason himself.But there is a big difference, unlike your "alternative historians Aka professional charlatans", Jason never whined about it,he is mature & smart enough to deal with the criticism. Are you willing to submit yourself to the court of public opinion & deal with the consequences?. Let`s have a poll.If the majority & Jason himself consider that I am a nuisance to this blog, then I`ll refrain from ever commenting again. But if a majority of readers see you as a pseudo intellectual hazard, I hope you`ll have the dignity to take your quackery to big-foot forums.

Gunn

5/13/2013 03:46:37 am

I should mention that timing is key, also.

For a random sample of blog input timing, consider February 18, in which I was in a sort of confrontation with Tara, then the next day I received my first negative review on my book, and then the next day, February 20, Tara went crazy on Jason.

(This is an example of how timing can be interpreted...sort of a parable, for illustrative purposes.)

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Gunn

5/13/2013 03:51:44 am

I admire Steve St. Clair for stubbornly putting up with your "garbage." He is worthy of the name. Ha! Ha!

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Steve St Clair

5/14/2013 01:55:56 pm

Thanks Gunn,

I may stick around just to see if I can make a vein pop out of his head. Doesn't seem too difficult.

Christopher Randolph

5/13/2013 08:48:34 pm

I believe there was a second reviewer on the grassy knoll.

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Keith

5/13/2013 05:26:48 am

This is getting oddly conspiracy-shaped.

Is Christopher Randolph a CIA plant? Will our Sinclair heroes Dan Brown their way to a lost white legitimacy in the New World?

I, personally, can't wait to find out. Perhaps some day there will be a documented trail of campsites and burials showing a lost expedition to the Americas before Columbus, and the Kensington Runestone will take pride of place in a really important museum somewhere.

But I don't think feeling so persecuted is going to help your cause. I don't think ad hominem about bad book reviews, misogyny and poo helps anyone.

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Gunn

5/13/2013 07:32:32 am

You are both right, Keith and Cathleen, but I hope you look back and see how these two have treated many others besides me, and then perhaps take a few moments to comment about them, too.

Besides having a background of being a soldier for several years, I was also a long-haul trucker and a corrections officer for several years. I have mentioned that I have mild TS. Even as a Christian, I still have a desire to strike back at times, but I really have cleaned up my language and attitude a lot. The issue right now is more about cyber-bulling, not so much how certain people react to it.

There is a history of cyber-bullying on this blog going way back, and two of the primary offenders have been identified, and not by me only. These two seem to relish in running other people down, while pretending to be so intelligent. Being wise and being intelligent are two different things.

Many, many very intelligent people not only believe in the Bible as God's Word, but also believe that the Kensington Runestone is authentic as a Christ-influenced stone document. These people do not deserve to be spit at.

I am serious in that I pray for my adversaries; yet I believe the hearts of some nonbelieving, self-professed skeptics are often especially hard, indeed. Sorry, but I don't like to lie down by my doggie bowl unless I hear my Master tell me to. Sometimes I suffer the consequences if I don't listen good, I'm sure. I do need to learn to love people more, as this is sometimes difficult for me when attacked.

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Keith

5/13/2013 08:08:54 am

So your belief in the Kensington Runestone as the best evidence to date of a Christian mission to America is distinctly influenced by your personal beliefs as a Christian who takes the Bible as the word of God (literally or figuratively)?
Is that what you are trying to say?
Would you not agree that your belief in the Kensington Runestone is based more in faith than in evidence?

Clint Knapp

5/13/2013 08:25:49 am

Gunn,
I've gone out of my way to avoid the entire KRS issue and the countless posts worth of rambling about it that you've made. I skim 'em and move on without so much as a word of comment because frankly it's the most boring hoax I can think of. There's nothing about the stone that appears legitimate, right down to the mangled pseudo-language it's written in, but you're welcome to continue to believe what you will.

I will say, however, that perhaps Jason's blog isn't the best place to carry on your crusade against people who you clearly feel are persecuting you. What drove this home to me was the out-of-the-blue accusation that someone from this blog gave your children's book a bad review. You yourself stated that you wrote the book to spread the KRS message to "impressionable minds" and frankly, I find something rather devious and disconcerting in that. It almost sounds like indoctrination, does it not? Regardless, I haven't read your children's book and won't be- so don't accuse me of being the vile reviewer next.

Perhaps instead of blaming people on commenting on a blog for your woes you could put this energy to use with your own blog or website where you can present the 'evidence' for the authentication of the KRS in a clear and scholarly manner rather than randomly spouting fragments at a group of people who are already convinced it's a hoax.

I admire you for keeping up your beliefs in the face of contrary evidence, but your methods of doing so have been devolving since you first appeared here. After a while you stopped giving examples and testimonies and have turned to the very same bullying, accusations, and "AAT"-esque tactics of sticking your fingers in your proverbial ears and screaming "NANANANANA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU MEANIES!" instead of providing solid evidence and argument.

Belief is not evidence, and tying a rock with some poorly hoaxed writing on it to Jesus does not make debunking efforts anti-Christian.

Gunn

5/13/2013 09:05:46 am

Keith and Clint; please read my comment in Jason's new blog heading, which should explain a lot. Also, you'll see my website posted there so you can see that I have tried to explain things, away from this blog, in a clear manner. Also, my personal faith in God has nothing to do with my belief in the authenticity of the KRS.

titus pullo

5/13/2013 06:37:10 am

While it is romantic to some extent to envision say a Roman expedition to America or Cathagenian..or later middle ages....where is the remains of the settlements? a few rune stones is hardly evidence. Same for the Asian theories..Japanese or Chinese sailing the Pacific and settling in Malibu. Perhaps the Polynesians made it to South America but like the Vikings in NF...it was a temporary thing....America was fundementally changed by the voyages of Columbus..he was no saint but Knights were not walking around in present day Cincinnati in the middle ages...

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Christopher Randolph

5/13/2013 08:43:52 pm

"America was fundementally changed by the voyages of Columbus"

Oh yes, and in fact the whole world. The Columbian Exchange as they say radically reordered not only human societies more places in the world than not, it completely for better and worse reshuffled the world's species and cash crops. Hard for us to imagine today northern Europe without the potato for example. It seems some people have taken the lesser place of L'Anse aux Meadows in taught history as some form of slight, but the plain fact is that beyond rote trivia there's really no historical impact there to study.

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titus pullo

5/14/2013 02:11:07 am

Chris,

I think humans want to know who was first..but your right...the world was changed..which on the whole raised living standards and improved human life (yes I know..the downsides as well..that is why I said on the whole). Columbus deserves the credit and also the criticism as well...we want history to be 'clean' and historical figures to be "good" or 'bad"...in 99% of the time they are both. Or as Clint said in Unforgiven.."we all got it coming to us".. ha ha

Paul Cargile

5/14/2013 02:50:11 am

Actually the Kensington Runestone is an authenic hoax created by future Sinclair family members who will travel back in time to place it there.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.